VA man hopes to help homeless shelters one pizza at a time

"A slice of pizza and smile can go a long way." And that's exactly why a local man is trying to raise money to order pizza for those who need it most in D.C.

Author:
Arielle Buchmann

Published:
6:39 PM EDT October 29, 2017

"A slice of pizza and a smile can go a long way." And that's exactly why a local man is trying to raise money to order pizza for those who need it most in D.C.

Cris Mullen's idea is simple, yet from the heart and has the potential to impact more people than he'll ever know.

The local television producer started a GoFundMe called Project Pizza . The goal of Project Pizza is to "raise money to buy pizza for folks in homeless shelters, women's shelters, and any other group of people we can think of who are just down on their luck."

Mullen is fully aware that "pizza won't solve the world's problems. But it sure does make people smile, even if it's only for a little bit." However, this goes to show that it's the thought that counts, or more importantly, the effort that is made.

Project Pizza came to Mullen while he was at a wedding a couple of weekends ago and staying at a hotel in the area of Union Station. While he was going back and forth from the wedding to the hotel he spotted a number of homeless people camped out in the area.

"It just felt like they were in the background while everybody else is living their lives.... and I thought, wouldn't it be neat if we just called Domino's pizza one day and we ordered 10 pizzas, paid for them in advance and just dropped them off on the corner."

Yes, the simplicity of this process is what makes this all so beautiful. Mullen saw an issue and reacted. Imagine what the world could look like if each and everyone of us took this type of initiative every day.

Wondering how you can help? Well, Mullen says "no donation is too small, no donation is too big." His hopes are to encourage a national or local chain to match the donations and in the meantime he'll find out about bulk deals.

More importantly, Mullen hopes to inspire others to perhaps to do the same or find a cause they care about.

"I'm kind of a radom guy. I like to do random things..mix things up a bit. I like to get myself out of my own comfort zone. It took me 10 minutes to set up the GoFundMe."

Ten minutes, that's all it takes sometimes to have an impact on somebody's life.